Hailed by the Boston Globe as “balmy-voiced” and for her “uniformly excellent” performances, mezzo-soprano Katherine Beck recently returned to Arizona Opera for Dorabella in Così fan tutte and joined the Metropolitan Opera for its production of Akhnaten in the 2021-22 season. Also next season, she returns to the Lyric Opera of Chicago, where she was a member of the prestigious Ryan Opera Center from 2020-2022, to cover Isolier in Le comte Ory, . Last season, she made her debut with the company as Wellgunde in Twilight: Gods, a reimagining of the final chapter of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. She also joined Music Director Enrique Mazzola for songs of Donizetti and Verdi on the “Sole e Amore” digital recital program, sang excerpts of Marquise Melibea in Il viaggio a Reims on the Rising Stars Concert, and performed repertoire from classical to jazz to Broadway on concerts online and via WFMT.

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She is an alumna of the Marion Roose Pullin Opera Studio and has previously sung Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, Mary Johnson in Spears’ Fellow Travelers, Flora in La traviata, Madeleine Audebert in Puts’ Silent Night, and Catherine Wright in Hagen’s Shining Brow with the company. Unfortunately her recent performances of Dryade in Ariadne auf Naxos—whilst also being responsible for Komponist—with Arizona Opera were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ms. Beck made her Santa Fe Opera debut as Karolka in Jenufa while an Apprentice Artist and sang her first performances of Sesto in Giulio Cesare with Pittsburgh Festival Opera. She recently joined Opera Buffs in Los Angeles as Angelina in La cenerentola following earlier performances of Mercedes in Carmen. With Opera Colorado, she created the role of Lisette in Cohen’s Steal a Pencil for Me with Opera Colorado and sang previous performances of La cenerentola in student performances.

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She is a two-time Vocal Arts Fellow of the Tanglewood Music Center, at which she was able to indulge her love for art song and chamber music. In the summer of 2018, she premiered Michael Gandolfi’s In America, composed in commemoration of Bernstein’s Songfest, with orchestra. Also there, she sang a recital of French chanson with Roger Vignoles and a concert celebrating humor in music with Stephanie Blythe and Dr. Alan Smith. Elsewhere on the concert stage, she has sung excerpts of La clemenza di Tito with the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra on its Mozart and Schubert Chamber Festival, Mozart’s Requiem at Scripps College, Mendelssohn’s Elijah at Williams College, and Handel’s Messiah for many consecutive years in Arlington, Vermont. She has also been featured at the oldest church in New England in her hometown of Bennington, Vermont, singing Bach’s Geist und Seele wird verwirret, BWV 35 and Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust, BWV 170. In the crossover realm, she joined the Boston Pops both at Symphony Hall and Tanglewood for the premiere of Sondheim and Lapine’s Sondheim on Sondheim.

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Ms. Beck is a winner of the prestigious George London Foundation Award, the LuminArts Vocal Fellowship in Chicago, and second place in the Annapolis Opera Vocal Competition. She is also a former semi-finalist of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She earned her Master of Music degree from the Thornton School of Music at the University of California, at which she sang Béatrice in Béatrice et Bénédict and Sesto in La clemenza di Tito, and her

Bachelor of Music degree from the Crane School of Music at the State University of New York at Potsdam.